The entry of social networking sites has greatly impacted the way lawyers and law firms tailor their marketing strategies. Almost everyone has an account on Facebook and Twitter, two of the world’s top hubs where people converge, communicate, and socialize through online mediums. And in terms of business and professional life, almost every individual is connected via LinkedIn.

Many online marketing specialists leverage the potential of LinkedIn to inbound high quality traffic and legal cases, and in many different ways. Whether via search, referrals, or content marketing, LinkedIn offers a high level of potential to inbound quality traffic for lawyers and law firms.

Below we highlight 5 essential tips in which lawyers and law firms alike should consider to maximize their marketing potential via LinkedIn.

1. Profile Completeness

Many underestimate the power of a complete, duly filled out profile. Whether is an individual profile or a business profile, people, particularly professionals, will read throughout your wall and see whether you are significant or not to their purpose. Having the necessary information placed in your profile allow LinkedIn users to get a clearer picture of you and your business and help them decide whether you can or not provide them with solutions or not.

2. Grow "First Degree" Connections

Lilach Bullock, a social networking pioneer currently writing for the Social Media Traffic Generation, says that first degree connections can help you build a good reputation online. They are the ones who help you get your name out there, mainly because they can read your profile and see your status, which bring us to number…

3. Update Your Status Regularly

Whether you are having a sale, launch a new product, or release information, make sure that you announce it on your LinkedIn profile page. Also include in your status your CTAs (call to action) as this can really help drive traffic from LinkedIn to your site.

4. Create/Join a Business and Legal Groups

Gather your peers and even your competitors and form a group. Having your own legal community will allow you to interact with other legal professionals, learn trends and trade secrets, and ultimately generate traffic from and for each other. The trick here is maintaining the group and keeping it going despite time constraints.

5. Include Portfolios & Quality Content in Your Profile

LinkedIn is a network created by and for professionals. Therefore, people who look into your profile would like to see what you can provide. Having a sample of your expertise or portfolio of your previous works, products, and services will provide people a preview of what you can offer them.

The Google Keyword Tool has been a very helpful application for many webmasters, search marketers, and online business owners over the years. Once an ideal tool for SEO and PPC keyword research, the Google Keyword Tool would show search volume statistics of a certain keyword, as well as specific variations regarding cetain keyword match types.

Although this application from Google has provided valuable data which has translated into to highly successful search marketing strategies, Google has decided to retire the Keyword Tool for something different.

Enter the Google Keyword Planner Tool

The replacement of Google's Keyword Tool (the Google Keyword Planner Tool) provides a slightly different set of information compared to the old Keyword Tool, even if the settings (place, time, etc.) are essentially the same. According to Google, the new Keyword Planner Tool provides “historical statistics only for exact match”.

So what does all of this mean?

On the positive side of things, this means the data from the new Keyword Planner Tool is rather simplified, making it easier for the user to get a grasp of the information provided by the results. Also, data shown by the new Keyword Planner are significantly more applicable than information provided by the old Keyword Tool. Google execs explain that the information delivered by the new application now include those that come from other mobile platforms and devices apart from desktops and laptops, specifically smart phones and tablets.

On the negative side of things, the data can seem a bit inflated when orchestrating a very specific search marketing strategy. Without the capabilities of knowning precise keyword data for different match types (exact, phrase, and broad match,) search marketers are challenged to minutely determine the ideal keyword targets for their strategy.

Additional Changes to Keep Top of Mind

The following changes are also applied to the new Keyword Planner Tool:

A number of search marketers are still struggling on how to work the new Keyword Planner Tool. Understandably, a lot are experiencing some issues on the data provided by the new tool. However, Google is still on the works on how to entice people to use the new keyword application and actually deliver what the tool promises.

Local monthly searches and global monthly searches are now simplified and merged into the "Average monthly searches" column. The results are derived specifically, depending on the parameters set by the users

Ad Share is no longer included. Google is still working on how to provide information on ad impressions

Search share column no longer exists

Most information can now be accessed by downloading the historical statistics from the Keyword Planner, such as local search trends and webpage extractions data

A number of search marketers are still struggling on how to work the new Keyword Planner Tool. Understandably, a lot are experiencing some issues on the data provided by the new tool. However, Google is still on the works on how to entice people to use the new keyword application and actually deliver what the tool promises.

The internet has greatly changed the way we do things. People use the internet to look for information about services they want. Fewer people rely on traditional advertising methods such as newspaper ads or the phone book.

With the increasing number of people using the internet to look for legal services, web legal marketing is an important aspect every practice should embrace. Law firm web marketing will allow you as a lawyer to promote your services using the available web resources. Below are the three top law firm web marketing strategies to embrace for 2014 to not only place you at a better place for clients to find you but to stay ahead of competition

Content marketing is at the heart of every web marketing campaign. Valuable content is what will sell you to potential clients. Your goal should be to create great content that users will want to read and share. Don’t just create content for the sake of it. The content should be useful to the reader and should convince him/ her to take action- follow on social media, register for the newsletter etc. Some of the top content marketing strategies include blogging, creating a company video, and articles.

Blogging - Create valuable blog posts with the right keywords wisely spread throughout the posts. Provide valuable tips, advice, and information that will make readers want to visit your main legal site for more.

Videos - Creating videos surrounding your law firm web marketing strategy is one of the best ways to get prospects to use your services. Make sure the video is short and precise explaining the services you offer, pricing, offers etc.

Articles- Like blogging creating high quality articles is important for your practice. Use the right keywords and provide value to users.

A good example of a brand that's doing this well is LawMarketing.com. The offer a wealth of information and resources to their audience, which naturally gains attention and new website visitors.

2. Be active on social media (particularly Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.)

A lot of people spend a considerable amount of their time on social networking sites, interacting with not only their friends and families but with brands as well. Using social media as a web marketing strategy serves to get your content and practice gets as much attention as possible and to get visits from social networks that will eventually convert into clients.

Creating a profile that represents your practice is important, being active on social media is as equally important. Potential clients need to know that you will be there when they need you and what a better way to show it than being active on twitter, facebook and other social media accounts

3. Exploit search engine marketing (SEO and PPC) to generate traffic and new cases to the firm's website.

With the recent changes in Google and other top search engines, an effective SEO is important. SEO helps in two ways; first to increase your ranking on search engines and to help clients find you on the internet. Search engine marketing involves two major components; Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click advertising. SEO involves strategies such as writing valuable content, copywriting, link building among others.

Pay Per Click involves using Ads to promote your practice with the aim of converting new prospects onto your list. With PPC you can target a specific group of people who are searching for legal services. Use Google ad words, Facebook ads to market your practice online. For SEO create highly optimized websites, provide fresh content, and avoid link spamming- forcing links where they shouldn’t be in link building. In addition choose trusted sources for PPC advertising such as facebook ads and Google adwords.

Law firm web marketing is important for your practice. It will not only help your firm rank higher on search engines but will ensure clients find you.

And looking at how many people use emails and have integrated email services into their daily lives, even the slightest fraction of its population can become a business owner’s huge market. Email marketing tactics have been devised and modified countless times because of the email’s potential to tap to a very large market. And with content marketing, the email platform has proven to be a potent partner.

Content marketing and email marketing complement each other in many ways. Both aim to generate credibility, leads, and conversions. Content marketing produces the right content to engage the right people, while email marketing reaches out to the desired market and target specific demographics and further drive the engagement between content and people who are interested in it.

Developing a Cohesive Strategy

Looking at the bigger picture of digital marketing, content is designed to reach out and get the people interested and hooked. On the other hand, email marketing ensures that your content reaches the right people and gets them involved in further spreading your content and encouraging them to take the actions you deem desirable. Email marketing helps you drive high quality traffic to your landing pages.

The trick in this partnership lies on how good the email contacts are. Regardless of how good your content is, if your email strategy fails to make people react positively to what you are promoting, then brace yourself for failure.

But if you employ the following tips, then you will see how content marketing and email marketing gel together and so well that your ROI figures will shoot right off the charts.

Create specific content for specific audiences. Marketing specialists always drive this point – never be too general when you are targeting certain demographics.

Make your content sociable. Whenever you post something in the Internet, make sure you fully utilize social sharing buttons. Having your content easily shareable will do wonders for your post, your site, and ultimately your business.

Send out relevant emails and make sure you send a lot. When people get the hang of your content and like it, make sure you send them more. Relevance should be shared between your content and your email. Regularly sending emails to your contacts allows is also a great practice, especially if you offer usable and significant content.

Many online business professionals have preached how the email marketing approach can be a perfect partner in any business scheme as far as online marketing is concerned. Almost all people have at least an email account which they maintain regularly and use to communicate with their peers and business colleagues. Formal, informal, business, and personal messages are now transmitted and received via email services.